For The Love Of Huggy
by Rescue45
Summary: The new DA wants Huggy arrested. He tells Chief Sterling the Huggy is the top crime boss for the West coast. It's up to Starsky and Hutch to find out who is framing Huggy or is he being framed? How much do we really know about Huggy?


For The Love Of Huggy

Chapter 1

Hutch was in the kitchen fixing breakfast for Debbie and Davey when Debbie came in. He turned to her and said, "That was some retirement party the hospital gave you and Jeanne last night."

"It wasn't as grand as yours and Starsky's but it was nice."

"I'm glad the two of you decided to finally go through with it. You deserve to stay home and relax."

"We're hoping our retirement is going to be less dramatic than yours."

Hutch laughed, kissed her and said, "Didn't I promise you life with me would never be dull."

"You did, but I never thought it would be this hair-raising."

Just then Davey walked in, "As soon as Starsky and I are old enough to join the academy, it'll start all over again."

Hutch said, "I don't think we'll have to wait that long, son. The two of you have gotten into enough already."

They all sat down to eat breakfast, "So, Davey, what are your plans for the day?" Debbie asked.

"Uncle Huggy got some tickets to see Chris Angel at the civic center this afternoon at one. Starsky and I are going to pick him up at eleven and head on over."

Hutch said, "Chris Angel, huh. I bet Kenny can't wait to see him."

"Yeah, he's pretty excited. Debbie, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Davey, you can always ask me anything."

Davey looked at his dad who nodded at him. Hutch knew what Davey was going to ask. They had talked about it a few days before. "You've been married to Dad for a while now and I've always thought that was one of his better decisions. Would you mind, I mean, can I call you Mom?"

Debbie starting tearing up as she stood up and hugged him and said, "I'd like that very much. I've always said if I had a child of my own, I'd like him to be just like you."

"I'm sorry I haven't asked before, it's just that, Aunt Jeanne has always been like a mother to me, and I thought she'd feel like you were kind of taking her place if I called you Mom. We talked about it the other day and said she wondered what I was waiting on."

She started hugging Davey tighter and Davey said, "Dad, help, she's choking me." She laughed, let go of Davey and kissed his forehead.

"There's one more thing, Debbie, I mean Mom. I talked to Dad about it and I want you to legally adopt me. I loved my Mom, but I was so young when she died I don't remember her. What I do know is that she would be okay with this."

Debbie started crying again. Davey stood up and put his arms around her and said, "Now don't start that again."

"I told you she'd react like this."

"I'd love to adopt you, Davey." She said as she stopped crying and dried her tears.

"Mom, I love ya but I gotta go to go to Starsky's now." He turned to leave, smiled at his Mom and said, "Now that you're my Mom, you got twenty bucks?"

She started to get up to get her purse. Hutch laughed at Davey, put his hand on Debbie and said, "Honey, he's kidding." Davey left laughing.

"Oh, Hutch I can't believe all this."

"Well have been talking about it for a while now. He's wanted to call you Mom since we married, but wasn't sure how Jeanne or you would take it. Just so you know, this was all his idea."

Davey went to Kenny's and they hung out there for a while looking at Kenny's collection of magic illusions. Davey practiced getting out of handcuffs and ropes. By eleven they pulled up outside Huggy's.

At the police station, Johnson and Reynolds entered Chief Sterling's office and were introduced to Sam Carter, the new DA. They shook his hand and the Chief said, "Have a seat, guys." There was something about the Chief's tone that bothered them. Something about it told them they weren't going to like what was coming next. They sat down slowly into the brown leather chairs. Chief Sterling nodded at Carter, who stood up and said, "Do you two know a man that goes by the name of Huggy Bear?"

Johnson looked at the Chief with a puzzled looked as he said, "Sure, we've known Huggy a long time."

"I want you to pick him up."

"Pick up Huggy? For what?" Reynolds asked looking equally as puzzled as his partner.

Chief Sterling said, "Carter, if you're going through with this nonsense tell them everything."

"The man you know as Huggy Bear is, in fact, the top crime boss on the West coast."

Johnson and Reynolds laughed, stood up and simultaneously said, "That's a good one, Chief."

Chief Sterling raised his voice and said, "Sit down, both of you. It's no joke."

They sat back down and stopped laughing. Johnson studied Carter's face for a moment and said, "You _are _serious aren't you?"

"Deadly. Now I expect you to pick him up." Carter turned his gaze to Chief Sterling and added, "I'd like to see Starsky and Hutchinson too."

"Look, Carter, you're really pushing it. Starsky and Hutch are retired. What make you think I have any control over them?"

Reynolds whispered to Johnson, "Especially since he didn't have any when they _did _work here." They both turned their head and laughed quietly.

"I know this is hard for you to believe but I'm telling you I have proof. Now, Chief I want Huggy Bear here."

Reynolds stood up again, raising his voice this time and said, "There is nothing you can say, no proof you can show me to make me believe any of this."

"Me either. Chief, do you really want us to bring Huggy in?" Johnson said in much calmer voice than his partner.

Chief Sterling closed his eyes briefly and sighed, "As soon as you can find him, bring him in along with Starsky and Hutch." He knew how much Huggy meant to them and he knew Starsky and Hutch were not going to take this lying down. "Now, both of you get going."

Johnson slammed the door as he left the Chief's office. Neither of them said anything until they got into Johnson's car. Reynolds said, "Did you hear that clown? Huggy a crime boss?"

"I heard. I also heard the Chief say _as soon as_ we can find him to bring him in. What if we can't find him or Starsky and Hutch?"

"What if?" Reynolds took his cell phone out of its case and called Hutch.

Hutch had taken Debbie to the beach and they were enjoying a long walk when Hutch's phone rang. He knew it was Reynolds and said, "Now what?"

Debbie hugged Hutch and said, "Honey, if he's calling it must be important."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He took the phone out of its case and said, "Hutch here."

"Don't say a word, don't ask any questions just listen we don't have much time. You need to get to Huggy and hide him someplace. Johnson and I are on the way to pick him up now, so hurry."

Hutch didn't say anything but hung up the phone. He told Debbie he would explain later. Hutch looked at his watch and knew that Huggy was with Kenny and Davey by now. He didn't want the boys involved in whatever mess Huggy was in, but he couldn't avoid it. Huggy was with them and it was them he had to call.

Davey and Kenny had picked up Huggy and were driving to the civic center when Davey's phone rang. Kenny reached over and took it out of its case and answered it because Davey was driving. "Hello, Uncle Ken. Hutch's driving so you get me."

"Have you picked up Huggy yet?"

"Yeah, he's with us now."

"Good, put him on the phone, please."

"Sure." He handed the phone to Huggy and said, "He wants to talk to you."

"Hello, Blondie, what's up?"

"Trouble, Hug. I don't know what yet, but I was told to get you someplace safe. Get Davey to take you somewhere and sit tight until I can call you back."

"Okay. I'll have him take me…"

Hutch cut him off knowing it would probably be better if he didn't know where Huggy was going to hide, "Don't tell me, Hug. Listen I'm going to catch up with Starsk and well get to the bottom of this just sit tight. Let me talk to Kenny again." Huggy handed the phone back to Kenny and told Davey to head out of town.

"Yeah, Uncle Ken?"

"I need you and Davey to keep Huggy out of sight from everyone until you hear from me or Starsky. And by everyone I mean the police too. Do you think you guys can handle it?"

"You can count on us, Uncle Ken."

When Hutch hung up from talking to Davey he immediately called Starsky. "Starsk?"

"That's me."

"Are you at home?"

"Yeah."

"I'll be there in ten minutes."

"I'll be here." Starsky knew by Hutch's tone something bad was going on. Hutch and Debbie arrived and told Starsky and Jeanne everything they knew. Hutch and Starsky went out to the front porch so they could call Reynolds back.

"Hello, Hutch is that you?"

"Yeah. The package is safe, so what's up?"

"Good. Where are you and Starsky?"

"Starsky's."

"I need the two of you to come to Chief Sterling's office as soon as you can, and you don't know where Huggy is, right?"

Hutch knew Reynolds well enough to know that wasn't a question. "We have no idea where Huggy is. We'll be there in ten minutes."

Ten minutes later Starsky and Hutch were walking into their old Chief's office. As Starsky opened the door he, said, "You know, Hutch, we've seen as much of this office since we retired as we did when we worked here."

"No kidding."

They were introduced to Sam Carter and they politely shook his hand. Johnson and Reynolds were already in the office sitting down. They nodded at Starsky and Hutch acknowledging their presence. Starsky and Hutch nodded back. They didn't like the look they had on their faces or the look Chief Sterling had.

Starsky sat in a chair and put his feet on Chief Sterling's desk. Sterling frowned saying, "Starsky, get your feet off my desk." Starsky took his feet down and sat up in the chair. Hutch sat on the arm of the same chair.

Carter looked at Chief Sterling and said, "Amazing how they managed to get Starsky and Hutchinson in here and can't seem to find a bar tender."

Reynolds stood up and said, "I don't like what you're implying."

Hutch said, "We're here. Somebody needs to explain why." Reynolds calmed down and sat back down.

Carter was looking at a folder and said, "I'll tell you. What do you know about Huggy Bear?"

"Huggy?" Starsky and Hutch both replied. They acted surprised because they didn't want Johnson to get into trouble for telling them the meeting was about Huggy.

Starsky said, "I know plenty about Huggy. What do you want to know?"

"I know there's more to him than any of you think."

Reynolds shot Carter a disapproving glare and looked at Starsky, "Carter here thinks Huggy Bear is the top crime boss on the West coast."

Hutch laughed, "Huggy a crime boss? He's never even carried a gun."

"I told this clown there was no proof he could show me that would make me believe any of it." Reynolds said staring at Carter.

Carter looked at Starsky then at Hutch, "Have the two you ever wondered why Huggy has always been there when you needed him the most?"

Starsky shook his head, looked at Hutch and said, "You believe this guy? Yeah, Huggy's always been there for us. That's because he's our friend, a real friend, something you wouldn't understand." The more he talked the more agitated he became.

"Let's start way back, early on in your careers. Hutch did you ever wonder who ordered Forrest to get you hooked on heroin? Starsky, how were you drugged before Bellamy gave you that near fatal injection? Shall I go on?"

Hutch spoke first saying, "Forrest was jealous because I was dating his girlfriend and I hid her so he wouldn't find her. Huggy was there for me and Starsky every step of the way."

"He helped me hide Hutch and keep him away from Forrest. And he had nothin' to do with Bellamy either."

"What about Stryker? Who do you think he was working for? Huggy even hired Stryker to kill Chief Dobey's old partner. Come on guys I could go on forever. Your careers were quite extensive and Huggy was there, as you put it, _every _step of the way."

All four detectives were shaking their heads no. Chief Sterling knew the longer Carter talked the madder all of his detectives were becoming. He was too. He didn't believe for a minute that Huggy could ever be involved in anything like this. Chief Sterling also suspected that Johnson and Reynolds had told Starsky or Hutch to hide Huggy someplace. Secretly, he hoped they did just that. He was hoping Huggy would stay out of sight until his detectives could get to the bottom of this.

Carter opened the file he had on Huggy and handed it Chief Sterling, "Here's the proof, Chief. Look, here's a picture of Huggy with Forrest. Look at the date on the picture, this was taken before Hutchinson's kidnapping. I have dates, names, pictures, even transcripts of tape recordings. He turned over another paper, "This one shows him with Stryker, this one with…"

"I don't care who those pictures show him with. I don't care what you have on tape." Starsky said as he jumped out of his seat again. Hutch didn't believe any of this either, but he wanted to know every piece of evidence this Carter had on Huggy. He reached out to Starsky and gently guided him back to his seat. Starsky got the message and sat back down. Johnson started to say something but Hutch shook his head. Both Johnson and Reynolds then knew what Hutch was thinking.

The next subject he brought up was Simon Marcus. He said Huggy knew Simon and had him kidnap Starsky. In fact Carter brought up the names of just about everyone who had ever tried to kill Starsky and Hutch. The man had gone through just about every case they had worked on during their long careers. He managed to tie Huggy into most of them one way or another. The fact that he could do that didn't surprise Starsky or Hutch. He had always been there for them and had provided them with so much information through the years.

Carter said, "Heard enough yet?"

Simultaneously the four detectives said, "Nope."

Now it was Carter's turn to raise his voice, "Chief I could go on, but I want Huggy in here. I want him arrested and behind bars where he belongs. No more stall tactics. I know they know where he is."

Hutch reached for the file and said, "Can I have that?"

Chief Sterling looked at Carter who said, "Sure. Keep it, mull it over and you'll see I'm right. Your friend Huggy's a crook and should be put away for life."

Hutch took the folder and sat back down looking at the pictures and other evidence. "Don't think that's the only copy I have of that file."

"Wouldn't dream of it." With the file in hand Hutch stood up and said, "Chief, unless you really need us for something or we're under arrest we'd like to leave. I think we've heard enough from this piece of garbage for one day."

"Yeah sure, you two can go." Starsky got up and started to follow Hutch out of the door when the Chief added, "If you happen to see Huggy it would be best if you convince him to turn himself in, otherwise I'll have to have Johnson and Reynolds pick him up."

Hutch raised his eyebrows and turned around while Starsky muttered, "Sure we will."

Chapter 2

Starsky and Hutch were walking as fast as they could to the car. They wanted to get as far away from Carter as they could. They had just barely pulled out of the station when Starsky said, "Guess what?"

"I see it. Who's following us, Johnson?"

"Yep."

"That creep Carter put him up to it."

"You _can_ lose him can't you?"

"Are you kidding me? I may be older, but I still got it."

"Wait. Starsk, go to the store around the corner, will ya?"

"Why?" The look Hutch gave Starsky let him know he couldn't explain just yet. As Hutch was getting out of the car he took the folder he had on Huggy and put it inside his jacket. He nodded at Starsky to come into the store with him.

Once inside the store, he said, "Starsk, we can't call Davey or Huggy from our phones. I bet they're tracking them. I'm going to buy a couple of those prepaid phones. They can't be tracked. I don't trust Carter. I think he would go as far as put a tracking device on both our cars. Maybe even a bug inside."

"How we gonna keep Huggy safe?"

"I got an idea. I'll get a cab and rent a car. Lose Johnson and meet me at Stage Road by the pond." They each bought two of the prepaid phones so when they caught up with the boys they could have one too. They exchanged phone numbers and as Starsky left Hutch said, "It shouldn't take you long to lose Johnson, it's not like he really wants to follow us anyway."

Hutch was right; Johnson didn't really want to follow them. He liked Huggy and so did Reynolds and neither could imagine why Carter was after him. He didn't mind losing Starsky but couldn't make it look too easy or there would be hell to pay with Chief Sterling. Not that the chief wanted to see Huggy arrested either. In fact, Carter seemed to be the only one who was after Huggy. Starsky lost Johnson when he went down an alley and turned left then took two right turns. Johnson never noticed that Hutch wasn't in the car.

Hutch met Starsky an hour later at the pond on Stage Road. They knew they couldn't go home. They couldn't let Johnson or Reynolds see them. They had already risked their careers by telling them to hide Huggy in the first place and they didn't want them to do anything else that would put their careers or lives in jeopardy. Starsky called Jeanne from the prepaid cell phone and told her they couldn't come home just yet but they would call as soon as they could. Jeanne had been Starsky's wife long enough to know he couldn't go into a lot of details over the phone and she knew not to ask about the boys. She knew they were hiding Huggy and Starsky couldn't talk about it. She was worried about her son and nephew but trusted Starsky and Hutch not to let them get into too much trouble.

"Okay, Hutch, now what do we do?"

"Let's find out where they're holed up and play it by ear."

Starsky took out his new cell phone and called Kenny.

After he talked to Hutch, Huggy had Davey drive him out of town. He didn't know what was going on but knew if Hutch told him to hide then he needed to hide. He had Davey take to him an old abandoned zoo. He knew there was a lot places they could hide the car and themselves. Huggy told Davey to drive down an old access road that led to a maintenance shed that was big enough he could hide the car inside.

"I'm sorry about missing Chris Angel, my little buddies."

Davey said, "Uncle Huggy, whatever is going on is more important than that."

"You mean more to us than that. What do you think is going on, anyway?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is your dads will get to the bottom of it." They left the shed and walked around the zoo for a while.

As they went into the old caves where the bears used to be held, Kenny asked, "Is this where that cult group held my dad years ago?"

"Naw, that was another zoo. It did look a little like this though. That zoo was actually turned into a wild animal sanctuary."

"That place. Starsk, remember our Dads took us there last year?"

"I didn't know it was that place. Dad never said anything."

"Guess he didn't want us to know it was _that _place."

They walked around for a long time before Kenny's phone rang. He didn't recognize the number and hesitated before answering it. "Hello."

"Kenny."

"Yeah, Dad."

"Where are you?"

Kenny wasn't sure if he should tell him or not he knew it was important to keep Huggy hidden. Davey said, "Ask him his badge number, Starsk."

"Good idea, Hutch. What's your badge number?"

"Eighty-two. It's okay, I'm calling from a prepaid phone it can't be traced."

Kenny told him where they were and Starsky told them to stay there that they would meet them in about an hour. Kenny asked his dad if he could bring them some drinks and maybe a sandwich. Starsky talked to Huggy and told him he should turn his cell phone off that it could be tracked. Huggy said he turned his phone off when he got the first call from them.

Hutch stopped at a store and bought plenty of food that would last a couple of days. They didn't know how long the five of them would be in hiding. It was Starsky's idea to buy five sleeping bags. He knew they would probably end up sleeping on the ground someplace and wanted to be as comfortable as possible. He looked at Hutch, and said, "I know how much you hate to be cold." Hutch just nodded and grinned.

About an hour later, Starsky and Hutch met Huggy and the boys at the old zoo. They managed to get Starsky's car inside the shed next to Davey's. Starsky gave them the drinks and food he brought. They cleared off a work table that was in the shed and Davey found some chairs that were stacked in the corner. The table was big enough for them to sit around. Starsky and Hutch explained everything that Sam Carter had told them. Huggy said, "Sam Carter. But I don't even know a Sam Carter. You guys don't bel…"

Starsky cut him off and said, "Of course we don't believe any of it, Hug. We just got to figure out why Carter does."

Hutch pulled the file out of his coat and laid it on the table. He looked at Davey and Kenny and was wondering how much of all this they should know about. It could get pretty dangerous. Davey said, "Dad, we're already involved."

Kenny added, "We want to help. Please, don't send us away now."

Starsky smiled and said, "No one is going to send you away. We can't; you know too much already." He nodded at Hutch. The boys were getting older now and had proven to be quite capable of taking care of themselves on more than one occasion.

They all looked at the pictures and the other evidence that Carter put in the file. Kenny picked up a couple of the pictures and studied them carefully. He held one up and said, "Dad, this picture isn't real, it's been doctored to look real, probably some photoshop program, look." He handed his dad the picture and pointed out the flaws. Kenny and Davey both looked at the rest of the pictures and noticed that all of them were faked.

"I figured as much. That's why I wanted the file. The transcripts could have just as easily been typed up." Hutch said as he looked through the pile of fake photographs.

"Okay, we can prove the pictures and everything is fake but that doesn't tell us the why." Starsky said, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Huggy was becoming upset looking at all the evidence in front of him. He picked up one of the pictures and said, "Look, this goes all the way back to the early 70s. How did anyone get this? And look this one is from just a couple of months ago."

"Huggy, think. Is there anyone whom you've known this long beside Starsky and me?" Huggy just shook his head no with a shocked look on his face.

He looked at a transcript from a tape ordering Forrest to get Hutch addicted to heroin. He leaned back in his chair and remembered when Starsky brought Hutch to the back door of the first restaurant he owned. Hutch had been missing for a while and someone found him in an alley. He helped Starsky carry him upstairs and clean off some of the mud he had on his face. He remembered seeing Starsky on the bed holding Hutch as he curled up in the fetal position from the pain. He took Hutch's shoes off and covered him up. He brought the two of them coffee and candy. Hutch saw what he was reading and knew Huggy was remembering one of the times he had been there for him. That was one of the worse times in Hutch's life and Huggy had been right there with him. He patted him on the shoulder and said, "You were there for me too, Hug. I never forgot that." Hutch took the paper, held it up and said, "This is garbage."

Kenny saw a picture of Huggy with a man who had an upside down cross on his head, a beard and a strange look in his eyes. He held the picture up and asked, "Dad, who's this?"

Starsky looked up from the stack of pictures he was going through and instantly recognized the man and said, "That's Simon Marcus." He remembered how Simon had his freaky followers hit him when he went to the men's room just before Simon's sentencing. He had been taken to an old zoo and held captive. He remembered being tied up and blindfolded as they chanted. He also remembered being scared when he was chained to the old monkey cage and thought he was going to be stabbed to death until he saw Hutch. Hutch remembered how hard he searched for Starsky and that Simon liked to play mind games. Hutch also remembered how Huggy stayed up with him all night trying to figure out where Simon's people were holding Starsky. Starsky said, "Come to think of it, Hutch, didn't you tell me it was Huggy here who figured out where I was."

"Yep, it sure was. We were brainstorming ideas and Huggy put two and two together. I got there just in time."

Davey was reading another transcript and said, "Listen to this. Simon says to Huggy, 'We have him, now what do you want us to do?' Huggy says, 'Don't kill him. I'll make sure his dumb partner finds him just in time.' Then Simon says, 'You do like toying with them, don't you? Are you ever going to kill them?' 'Then Huggy says…'

Starsky took the paper from Kenny and said, "No, if I kill them, I won't know what the cops are up to. This way I can have it both ways. No, no, I'll never kill those two. I'll keep them around and have my fun with them.' He was getting madder the more he read.

Huggy put his head down. He couldn't believe what was being said. He couldn't believe all the pictures, the names and dates of meetings that never took place. He never cared much for cops any cops before he met Starsky and Hutch. These two were different, they were good, honest cops and he found out quickly they could be trusted. They became much more than a couple of detectives that wanted information from him. They became his friends, real friends he could count on. He had been there for them, but they were there for him too."I don't know what to say, guys. What do I do?"

Starsky gave a half grin and said, "Well, that's a first, Huggy not knowing what to say."

Hutch put his drink down gave a little grin and patted Huggy's back. "We'll get to the bottom of this. You know we will."

Davey looked at everything laid out on the table. He moved a couple of pictures around and picked up one of pictures of his dad he had never seen before. Hutch noticed the pale look on his son's face. Kenny noticed it too and took the picture away from Davey and handed it to Hutch, "It's you Uncle Ken, I think it's from when Scott Grayson had you."

It sure was. That picture was the one Hutch hated the most. Davey put his head down and turned away, "Dad, I…"

Hutch walked to the other end of the table where Davey was, put his arm around him and said, "It's okay, son. I know you never saw the pictures. Just remember it was a long time ago and I'm alright now."

"I know. It just shocked me for a minute seeing you like that."

"I know what you mean. I did look pretty rough in it that one."

Kenny picked up a transcript and said, "Maybe we should match the transcripts with the pictures, and the names and dates of when they say Uncle Huggy had these meetings."

Starsky was holding a stack of pictures and said, "That's a good idea."

Huggy was reading a transcript, "According to this, Hutch, I told Grayson to kidnap you. And this one says I hired those men to shoot up Johnson's house during that superbowl party." He threw the papers down.

"Dad, all this is stuff is things that would be in your files, right?" Kenny asked as he took a sip of his drink.

"Yeah. Except anything that took place after we retired."

"Well, most of this has been in there for years. Would a DA have access to it? I mean who could have or would have bothered to go into your files after you retired?"

"He's right, Starsk. Who would bother?" Hutch said looking up from the photo he was looking at.

"Someone who doesn't want me around anymore." Huggy said as he let out a sigh.

Starsky and Hutch both said, "Right."

Starsky took out his new cell phone, "I'm going to call Jeanne and let them know we're alright and won't be home tonight."

"Good idea, Starsk."

Chapter 3

Reynolds put his hands up and said, "Okay, they lost us, now what do you want to do?"

"Let's go back to the office. I'd like to have a chat with Chief Sterling without that creep Carter."

Chief Sterling said, "Close the door," when the two detectives walked in his office. "Let me guess, they lost you?"

"Yeah, well, um, Starsky's pretty good. He was on to us as soon as we left."

"That doesn't surprise me. I knew he'd lose you." He lowered his voice, "Especially since you didn't want to follow them anyway." Johnson and Reynolds looked at each other and shrugged.

"Chief, do you have another copy of that file? Johnson said as he got a cup of water from the water bottle that was in the corner of the office.

Chief Sterling took a file out of his drawer and handed it to Reynolds and said, "Here, I thought you might want it. Carter said he made a few of these."

Reynolds reached for the file, "Thanks, Chief. We gotta find out why he's after Huggy. You know it's not true, right? Starsky and Hutch trust Huggy with their lives and we trust him too."

"What I know and what I have to do as Chief are two different things. I know Huggy's not guilty of anything." He leaned forward and whispered and said, "So the two of you are going to figure out what's really going on. Officially, I want you to bring Huggy in and charge him _if _you see him. Off the record if you want to volunteer, I have a special assignment for you. Before accepting it, you should know that it could be dangerous or end your careers if you fail."

At the same time they said, "We volunteer."

"Okay. I have an idea but I can't talk here. I need you meet me at my place tonight. Make it late let's say about twenty-three hundred."

Reynolds had opened the file and was looking through it. He saw the same things Starsky and Hutch were looking at. He wondered where they were and knew that they would keep Huggy safe until they had this all figured out. "Chief, I think we should go talk to Jeanne and Debbie. They've got to be worried by now."

"Yeah, you do that and tell them we'll get to the bottom of this. Hey, you don't know where Starsky and Hutch are, _do you_?" He said in a way that sounded like more of a suggestion that an actual question. They both shook their heads no.

Reynolds spoke up and said, "They'll want to figure this out on their own. They know if they involve us, it could hurt our careers."

Johnson started to say something but the Chief interrupted him, "We'll talk tonight at my place. When you talk to Jeanne and Debbie ask them to have Starsky or Hutch call tonight if they hear from either of them. They nodded and left.

Johnson pulled up to Starsky's place and knocked on the door. Jeanne let them in and they joined Debbie in the living room. There was an awkward silence as they sat down. "Let me start by saying we know Starsky and Hutch hid Huggy this morning. Reynolds and I _don't want to know _where they have him. We're going to meet with the Chief tonight at his place at twenty-three hundred. If you hear from Starsky or Hutch, we'd like for you to ask them to call us there."

Reynolds looked around and didn't see Kenny or Davey, "Are Kenny and Davey with them?"

Jeanne nodded, "The boys were with Huggy when you called Hutch this morning. They hid him, but we don't know where any of them are right now."

Debbie added, "We don't know if Starsky and Hutch are with the boys or not. We haven't heard from the boys all morning. We know Starsky and Hutch met with Chief Sterling a little bit earlier, but we haven't heard from them since."

Johnson said, "We think Starsky and Hutch _are_ with the boys and Huggy now. We were supposed to follow them but Starsky managed to give us the slip. We know Huggy's not guilty of anything, but they should stay out of sight for a while. Unfortunately that includes Kenny and Davey too."

Just then the house phone rang and Jeanne got up to answer it. Reynolds said, "If it's one of them, please tell them we're here and I'd like to talk to them for a minute."

Jeanne nodded and answered the phone, "Hello."

"Hi honey, I just wanted to call to say don't worry about us."

"Johnson and Reynolds are here and they want to talk to you a minute, okay?"

"Sure, put one of them on."

Jeanne held out the phone to Reynolds and he told Starsky about the meeting at Sterling's place later tonight. He told him it would be a good idea if they called his place then. Starsky said he would call but they were all going to stay hidden until they could find out who was behind all this and there was no way anyone was bringing Huggy in. Reynolds agreed. Starsky told him they could prove the pictures had been faked. Reynolds couldn't tell him anything else so he gave the phone back to Jeanne. Starsky told Jeanne that the boys were going to be with them at least for the night. He said that whoever wants Huggy this bad might try to have them arrested as accomplices. Not only that, they did know where Huggy was and they wanted to keep them safe from whoever was after Huggy. He told her where he left his car and it was locked but he knew she had a spare key. Jeanne said she would take Debbie later and pick it up.

Johnson and Reynolds met Chief Sterling at his place at the designated time. When they went into the kitchen Seth, Austin and their partners were sitting at the table. Johnson said, "What are you four doing here?"

"We volunteered." They all said in unison.

Chief Sterling began, "Okay. I do have a plan and like I said before we will all be risking our careers and possibly our lives. I won't blame anyone if they want to leave now. This will all be off the record." He waited for anyone who wanted to leave to do so. It gave him a warm feeling inside that none of the men moved. He knew he made the right choices for the jobs he had in mind. Reynolds told them about speaking to Starsky earlier and that Starsky would try to call. The Chief sat down and said, "Okay, we've all known Huggy for a long time and we all know he's not perfect, but he's no crime boss either. There's a lot of information in these files…" The phone rang and the chief got up and walked into the living room to answer it.

Starsky was on the other end, "Chief."

"Starsky, thanks for calling."

"Make no mistake, Hutch and me are not turning Huggy in."

"I don't want you to. You're calling from a prepaid phone aren't you?"

"Yes, I know it can't be traced."

"Good. Listen, I have a plan and I have a few volunteers that are going to help Huggy out. I can't go into details on the phone and I don't want you, Hutch, Huggy or even the boys to come out of hiding. If anyone from the department sees you, they'll have to run you in. Carter's made me put an APB out on all of you and the boys too."

"I had a feeling; that rat."

"We're going to take care of it from this end. I've got six detectives that have volunteered for this and they all know the risk if this goes bad."

"Johnson and Reynolds I already know; are the others Seth, Austin and their partners?"

"Yes."

"We can trust all of them. You know we can prove the photographs are all faked. Kenny said they were doctored by some computer program. Find out who accessed our files."  
"That's where we're going to start. Like I said, I can't go into details over the phone and I don't want to know where you are. Just sit tight and check in a couple of times a day."

"Thanks, Chief, and thank everyone else for all of us too."

"How's Huggy holding up?"

"He's upset, but he knows we're behind him."

"Tell him we all are."

Both men hung up. Starsky was glad to hear the Chief was with them on this and had a plan. He wasn't sure exactly what the Chief had in mind but was glad he had an idea.

Starsky and the others had moved some things around in the shed so they had room on the floor to sleep. They were glad this shed was as big as it was.

It took them a while but they matched all the dates, names, and phony transcripts of tape recordings. Starsky and Hutch were able to put most of them chronological order with help from Huggy. In over forty years on the force there were a lot people that they had put away. A lot of blood, sweat and tears were shed over that time and although the papers and photos were all faked, the fact that Huggy was there when they needed him wasn't. Whoever was framing Huggy did nothing more than strengthen the friendship and trust Starsky and Hutch felt for him. About one in the morning they went to sleep in the sleeping bags Starsky bought.

Sometime during the night, Huggy woke up and looked at his friends lying on the floor. He smiled at them and quietly said,"I'm not going to let you do this." He opened the shed door very quietly and stepped outside.

He walked about twenty feet when Davey said, "Uncle Huggy, where do you think you're goin'?"

"Away from you guys." Davey shook his head no. Huggy looked at the shed and said, "If I stay with them, they could get killed this time so could you or Kenny. It's too dangerous. I won't…"

"We're willing to make that choice. We know the dangers. Don't you see, Uncle Huggy, we all love you."

Kenny heard Davey get up and leave. He followed him outside and heard him talking to Huggy and joined them, "He's right."

"What about all that evidence against me."

"That's not evidence. Do you know what Starsky and I saw today? What we really saw?

Huggy didn't say anything he just looked at his young friends. Kenny reached and gently grabbed Huggy's arm, "We saw a friend, a real friend, who has been there for our dads through some of the worst times in their lives. Huggy, you've helped them and us so much over the years, let them, let us help you now."

Davey used his soft quiet voice as he said, "Come on, Uncle Hug, don't surrender and don't give up. Don't give up on _us j_ust yet, please."

Huggy heard a voice from behind them said, "The kids are right you know, Hug. You can't give up on us now we've come too far together." He recognized the voice as Starsky's. He turned around and saw both Starsky and Hutch standing there. Hutch walked to him and put his arm around his and said, "Let's get some sleep and hit it again in the morning, Hug. You're not in this alone, my friend. Trust us. Trust us like you always have."

Huggy looked at all four of them and started walking back to the shed "What if I turn out to be some big crime boss after all?"

Hutch laughed slapped his shoulder, "Well then, my friend, we'll have to call Johnson and Reynolds and put you out of commission."

Davey sounded excited and almost yelled, "Dad, that's it!"

"What do you mean, son?"

"Whoever's setting Huggy up wants him out of commission. They know he's been giving the cops information for years. They don't want him to supply the police with any more information."

Kenny said, "I think he's right. It's got nothing to do with the two of you, Dad. Someone doesn't…"

Starsky cut his son off, "They don't want Huggy to give the cops anymore information. It's got to be a dirty cop."

"How do you figure that, Starsk?" Hutch asked as he opened the door for them to go back inside.

"It has to be someone who could have gotten our files, doctored them and put them back."

"Since you two retired, I've been giving information to Johnson, Reynolds, Seth, Austin and their partners, but mostly Johnson and Reynolds."

"Right so whoever wants you out of the way must think you have some information for them about some dirty cop." Starsky said as he went back inside the shed and sat on the table.

Davey asked, "Dad, should we be looking at these old files on you two, or Johnson and Reynolds files? You know, see what they're working on and if there's a connection there."

Kenny sat on the table next to his dad and added, "Maybe these files were made up just to distract us. Huggy, were you about to give Johnson or Reynolds any information on anything?"

"Nothing in particular, but the people on the streets give me information they want the cops to know about."

"They do. They do because they know you'll get the word to us without getting them involved." Hutch said taking a seat in one of the chairs.

Davey sat next to his dad and put his feet on the table, "So if I understand this right, someone on the street wants the cops to know something and they know they can trust Huggy to get it to them. It's probably some information about some crooked cop or they wouldn't have faked your file, Dad."

"I've always said you two had smart kids." Huggy sounded a little hopeful now.

"Yeah, we're hoping they'll go into police work as a career someday." Starsky said laughing.

Hutch put his feet up on the table and said, "Why not kill Huggy then?"

Starsky took a sip of the drink he'd been slowly sipping on and answered, "They want to know who is giving him the information. Maybe they think you already know something."

"But I don't."

"Dad, is there any reason someone would want Uncle Huggy to go into hiding instead of jail? I mean they faked the files to have him picked up, but whoever did that is bound to know that you and Uncle Ken would hide Huggy before you'd let him get arrested." Kenny said as he opened up a bag of chips.

Hutch put his head down, "I'm getting a headache."

"I hear ya, buddy, me too." Starsky replied putting the file back down as he tried to think of an answer to Kenny's question.

Huggy said, "Maybe there's two people involved. One fixed the files and wants me arrested, putting me out of commission, as you put it, and the other one…"

Hutch picked his head back up, "Carter. Carter had Sterling get Johnson and Reynolds to pick you up, Hug. He asked for them by name, Sterling told us that in that little meeting he had. He knew Johnson would call us and that we'd hide you."

"So Carter's not the bad guy in all this?" Starsky said sounding surprised. He was really beginning to have a strong dislike for the man the more he looked at the files.

"I think maybe not, Starsk. I think he's on our side, but he doesn't know who he can trust. Maybe he doesn't know who gave him the doctored files and he needs our help to figure that out."

Starsky said, "Or worse, he does know and he's scared of them."

"What about this?" Davey said, "What if Carter doctored the files himself? I mean he'd have access and the knowhow. Maybe he found out that someone was after Huggy and he wanted to protect him. You said he knew you'd hide him. Maybe his plan was to have you hide Uncle Huggy and keep him safe until Johnson and the others found the _real _bad guys."

Starsky said opening the folder again. "He knows enough about us to know that we know who we can trust. I think I need to call Sterling back and let him know what we think. He'll work on it from that end and I think we still need to keep you out of sight, Hug."

Chapter 4

Starsky called Chief Sterling back and told them what they had figured out. The Chief told him he thought it might have to do with a dirty cop but wasn't sure how Huggy figured in it. He agreed that even if someone wanted to get information to Huggy, it was better for him to stay out of sight for a while. He said he thought what they told him about Carter made sense and he had an idea about how to approach him from that angle. The Chief asked Starsky to check in everyday with one of the seven of them.

The Chief and his six volunteers stayed up talking and working out a plan until about four in the morning. None of them went home that night. They crashed on the couch, the floor, a big chair the Chief had in the living room and the guest room.

The next day at about 2 p.m. Seth called Carter on the phone and said he'd like to talk to him. He said he just found out some information on Huggy. He told him he didn't want to meet anyplace in town because he didn't want anyone to know about the meeting. Carter said he could meet him outside of town at the restaurant on Hunter's Road.

Carter left his office and told his secretary that he would be gone for the rest of the day and she could leave too. He had often let her leave early if he wasn't planning on coming back to the office after a meeting.

Johnson and Reynolds watched as Carter left. His secretary took her purse out of the drawer and also left for the day. Reynolds obtained entry into the office. Let's just say the bobby pins he carries come in handy at times. Johnson followed him inside. Once inside the office, they looked through the file cabinet for any information they could find on Huggy, Starsky or Hutch. What they were hoping to find was who gave the information to Carter. They searched the file cabinets to no avail. Reynolds opened - or rather unlocked - a drawer in Carter's desk. Johnson said, "You're so talented. I'm glad you're on our side."

Reynolds opened the drawer and said, "I got it. Look." He took three files, one on each Huggy, Starsky and Hutch.

Johnson said, "Just take pictures of the stuff we don't have already in the file he gave us."

"No kidding. I'm no rookie you know." They both took a file and opened it. They looked at every page in all the files and found nothing new. They left hoping Seth and Thompson would have more luck.

Seth was waiting at the restaurant eating lunch as Carter came in. He looked around and saw him sitting in the booth at the far corner. He looked nervous as he sat down. Seth had a file in his hand and said, "This is proof that Huggy Bear is a crime boss." The file had the names and dates of a meeting that had taken place a month ago with all the well-known crime figures on the West coast. There was a picture of Huggy sitting at the head table.

Carter looked over the information and quietly said, "I'll add it to the file. You know Starsky and Hutch have Huggy hidden someplace. There's an APB out on all of them including their sons."

"I know. I shoulda known they'd try something like that. Let me know when you find Huggy."

Carter put the file in his coat and got up and left. Seth waited a few minutes, paid his bill and left. As Seth was getting into his car a man pulled a gun on him and told him to get into the car. Seth turned to see if he recognized him, but all he saw was a man wearing a mask. He didn't recognize him or the voice. As Seth was getting into the car he heard Thompson yell, "Freeze, police!" The man turned around and shot Thompson who fell to the ground. Shocked, Seth tried to get the gun away from him but was hit on the head during the struggle and was knocked out.

When Seth woke up he discovered he was blindfolded and had been tied to a chair. He could get out of the ropes binding his hands and feet and was working on doing just that when he heard a voice say, "Detective Green, I know you can get out of handcuffs and ropes. Do yourself a favor and don't try it, I am watching you. I am sorry about your partner, Thompson."

Seth tried to forget about the throbbing headache he had so he could remember what happened. Then it hit him, "You shot my partner."

"Sorry, I had to kill him."

Seth felt his heart pounding. The thought of seeing Thompson's lifeless body lying on the ground was more than he could bear. He felt like someone stabbed him in heart with a knife. He tried to push the memory out of his head as he held back his tears. He wanted to believe that Thompson managed to survive, but he kept seeing him lying on the ground covered in blood not moving. He struggled to get free and received a bloody lip for his efforts. The voice said, "I told you don't try it. I need you alive for now at least."

He heard the man talking on the phone saying, "No. I tried it your way it didn't work. They hid him. Now we're doing it my way. James Thompson is dead. Now they'll trade Huggy for Officer Green here or I'll kill him." The man hung up and said, "Now Detective Green, I'm going to call Chief Sterling and arrange a trade off."

"Don't waste your time; we don't know where Huggy is."

"Ahh, but we both know Starsky and Hutch do. They have him hidden someplace."

"We don't know where they are either." Seth spit the blood out of his mouth aiming in the direction of the man that hit him.

"For your sake, you'd better hope the Chief can get in touch with them. See, we want Huggy and they want you. Nice trade off, don't you think?"

"What do you want with Huggy?"

"None of your business. Like I said, I'm going to call Chief Sterling and arrange for a trade. The only thing I need you to do is tell him I mean business."

"I won't do it. I won't cooperate."

"You will one way or the other. If not, you'll join your partner."

Seth bowed his head in defeat. He knew whoever this man was would do just what he said. Huggy had always been a good friend to him and he wanted him to stay safe. He wanted Huggy to stay hidden. His head was spinning with ideas and thoughts about what he should and could do. He decided what he would do when he had the chance to talk to Chief Sterling. He knew the Chief would insist on talking to him. Seth really wanted to know who this man was and asked, "Who are you anyway?"

"Just someone who has an interest in our mutual friend." The man picked up his cell phone and called Chief Sterling. Seth heard him as he said, "Chief Sterling, I have a proposition for you. I want to trade Detective Green for Huggy Bear. That's Seth Green not Austin. As you probably know by now I killed his partner a short time ago, and if I don't get Huggy I will kill him too."

"You're wasting your time. I don't know where Huggy is. What did you say about Thompson?"

"You'll find his body behind that restaurant you had Green meet Carter at. Now you have until tomorrow at noon to find Huggy. If not you'll have another dead cop on your hands."

"Let me talk to Detective Green. I want to know he's alright."

The man held the phone up so Seth could talk, "Hi, Chief. I'm alright so far. What about Thompson, have you found him?"

"No, son, we haven't seen Thompson. We'll find him don't worry."

The next thing Seth said he said quickly, "Chief, keep Huggy safe. Tell them to keep him hidden." That earned him a hit so hard it knocked him down, chair and all.

"Like I said before, you have till noon tomorrow or you'll have another dead cop on your hands."

He hung up hoping the Chief did have some way of getting in touch with Starsky and Hutch. Killing Thompson would prove to Chief Sterling that he was serious and he was hoping it would flush Huggy out of hiding. He was angry at Seth for telling the Chief to keep Huggy hidden. So angry, in fact, he sat him back up and hit him until he went unconscious.

When Chief Sterling hung up the phone he tried to call Thompson on his cell phone. There was no answer. Instinctively, he knew Thompson had been killed. He called Johnson and told him to take Reynolds to the restaurant and locate him. He also told them that if either of them heard from Starsky or Hutch he wanted to speak to them. He told them all about the 'trade' this mystery man wanted to make. He also told them that Seth said the man wanted to kill Huggy.

Chapter 5

District Attorney Carter was almost positive that he could trust Chief Sterling, but he had to be sure. That little meeting Sterling arranged with Detective Seth Green at the restaurant confirmed is instincts. He knew the meeting with Seth was setup by Sterling to test him. He never liked deceiving Chief Sterling and his detectives. He was counting on Johnson or Reynolds telling Starsky and Hutch to hide Huggy. He knew Starsky and Hutchinson would never believe for a second anything that was in that bogus file.

His first mission had been accomplished; Huggy was safely hidden. Now he had to decide on a way to arrange a meeting with Chief Sterling without anyone else knowing. He couldn't just walk into the chief's office and he didn't want to call the Chief himself. He had to make sure no one was with him that might overhear him. He finally decided that he would take a chance and call Johnson. Carter knew Chief Sterling trusted him and his partner. He called Johnson and told him that he needed to meet with Chief Sterling and it had to be kept a secret. Johnson knew about the meeting that Seth had with Carter and that it had been a set up to test Carter. Chief Sterling knew that if Carter was on their side, he would call and turn Seth in. Johnson knew that's why Carter was calling now and he knew now that he could trust him. At least he was hoping he could when he told Carter to meet them at the back of the old movie theatre at 2200 hours. Johnson told Carter about Seth being kidnapped and whoever had him wanted to trade Seth for Huggy.

Starsky and Hutch wanted to know if the Chief had learned anything new and if his latest plan had worked. This time Hutch called Austin. He could tell as soon as he answered the phone that Austin was very upset about something, "Austin, what's wrong?" Hutch asked him.

"It's Seth. We were hoping you guys would check in. Seth's been kidnapped and we can't find Thompson. Some man called Sterling today and said he wants to trade Seth for Huggy. He also said he killed Thompson but we can't find him. He said he would call at noon tomorrow and if we didn't have Huggy he'd kill Seth. Sterling talked to Seth so we know he's okay for now at least. Seth told Sterling not to trade."

"Are you sure about Thompson?"

"No. We can't find him. Hutch, we can't make the trade. I love my brother, but I know he's going to be killed if we make the trade. Keep Huggy safe. Oh, and Carter is having a meeting tonight with Sterling, Johnson and Reynolds. He called today."

"Where's the meeting?"

Austin told Hutch where the meeting was and Hutch said that one of them would be there. Hutch hung up the phone and debated on whether or not to tell Huggy about the trade. He thought about it as he walked back inside the shed. He didn't want to tell them about Thompson either. As soon as he walked through the door of the shed, however, Starsky knew something bad had happened. He knew his partner well enough to know when he was trying to hide something. "Hutch, what's wrong?" He asked.

"Well I suppose all of you should know and have the right to know what's going on. Huggy, someone wants you bad, real bad and they're holding Seth. They want to trade you for him."

"Okay, let's go." Huggy said without hesitating as he walked toward the door.

Hutch caught him and said, "Not tonight. Tomorrow at noon he's going to call Sterling back. Seth said no."

"I'm saying yes. Hutch, Starsky, you know I can't let that kid die for me."

"We're hoping it's not going to come to that. Austin also said Carter asked Sterling to meet him tonight. Johnson and Reynolds are going to be there and I told Austin that one of us would be there." Starsky nodded. He waited for more. He knew Hutch was hiding something. There was something else but he knew Hutch didn't want to tell the others.

"I guess we were right about Carter, just when I was really beginning not to like him." Starsky opened another drink. "So do you want to go to the meeting or do you want me to go?"

Hutch took a coin out of his pocket and as he flipped it in the air Starsky said, "Heads."

As he caught the coin, Hutch said, "Tails. I go." Starsky frowned.

Davey laughed and looked at Kenny and said, "See, I told you that's how they make all the important decisions."

Kenny reached in his pocket and handed Davey a quarter, "You're right, a bet,s a bet."

"You bet on us?" Hutch said as he put his own quarter back in his pocket.

Simultaneously the boys said, "All the time."

They laughed. Huggy wasn't smiling. He was sitting very quietly. He looked about as stressed and upset as they had ever seen him. "I can't let Seth die. I won't do it, Hutch. You tell them that tonight." He said quietly.

"Uncle Ken, if you leave, do we need to relocate? I mean they know you know where we are."

"No. I'll call after the meeting and if you need to move I'll give Starsky a coded message. Hug, don't worry, it will all work out." Hutch started to walk outside and the look he gave Starsky let him know he had more to say, just as Starsky thought.

"There's more isn't there, Hutch?"

"Yeah." He reached out and touched Starsky's arm. He whispered, "Thompson may be dead. Whoever has Seth said he killed him."

"What do you mean _may_ be dead?"

"Austin said they can't find him. He's not where they said he was."

"Oh God Hutch, we can't let Huggy find out."

"No, we can't. I don't want the boys to know just yet either. Now the meeting is at 2200 and I'll call when I leave to let you know if you have to move."

"Yeah, okay." Starsky rubbed his forehead at the thought of Thompson being dead and Seth being held captive. "Hutch, I think there's another angle we haven't thought of."

"What's that?"

"The informer. We need to find out who it is that wants to give Huggy the information. Who has the goods on the dirty cop?"

"If we can find out who that is and what they know, we can find who has Seth and save Huggy. That is a good idea, you should have been a detective." Hutch chuckled.

"Funny." Starsky muttered.

"Maybe one of us should make an appearance at The Pits. If they're willing to give Huggy info maybe they know us. I'll go there tonight after I meet with Sterling."

"I don't like it. You could get killed."

"I know, but it's the best plan we have right now."

"I won't be there to back you up."

"Okay, what do you suggest? You or I need to go to The Pits."

"I'll go then."

"I won the coin toss."

Starsky looked down at the ground and kicked at the gravel. He knew Hutch was right but he didn't like him going off without him to back him up. "Come on, Hutch, can't you think of anything else?"

"Not unless you want to leave the boys here with Huggy alone or take them all with us. Hey, I'll go after the meeting and I'll take Johnson and Reynolds. I admit, it won't be the same as having you watching my back but it's the only way."

"Let's not tell Huggy or the boys that part either. I think Huggy's worried enough and I don't want to worry the boys any more either." Starsky finally gave in knowing Hutch was right. It was dangerous but one of them needed to go to The Pits and see if the informer would contact them. "Hutch, be careful, please."

"Yes, Mother. If I'm not back or at least call by 0100 move Huggy someplace. Don't tell me where unless I call and give you your badge number."

"My badge number?"

"Yeah, let's switch it up for a change." Starsky nodded. "I'll call Debbie and Jeanne tonight while I'm out and check on them too. I think I'll tell them to go to a hotel to keep them safe."

"Good idea."

As they were walking back into the shed Hutch said, "Be ready to leave in a hurry if I give you the word."

Starsky nodded, "Hey, Hutch?"

"Yes, I'll bring back some more food."

"I mean real food too, no impregnated wheat germ, goat's milk and whatever else you put in that stuff you drink."

"Would I do that to you, buddy?" He chuckled as he opened the shed door and they went inside to join the others.

Hutch snuck around to the back of the old movie theatre about half an hour before Carter was supposed to be there. He got out and walked to the side of the building so he could see everyone as they came. He saw Chief Sterling's car pull up and he watched as he got out of his car. The Chief saw a shadow on the side building and quietly called, "Starsky?"

"I'm Hutch, he's Starsky," came the sarcastic reply. He took a cautious step towards the Chief.

The two men shook hands and the Chief said, "I'm glad to see you. Thanks for checking in. Is Huggy safe?"

"He is for now. We got him and the boys hidden. Starsky's with them now. What about Thompson any word?"

The Chief sadly shook his head and said, "No. We've searched everywhere. We've called all the hospitals, the morgues every inch of the area around that restaurant. We haven't given up. We'll find him one way or the other."

They saw car lights approaching and Hutch ducked back into the shadows. The car pulled up next to Chief Sterling's and Hutch recognized it as Johnson's so he came out from the shadows. They all shook hands. "Carter's on our side like we thought isn't he?" He gave the Chief the phone number where Starsky could be reached.

Johnson nodded, "Yes, he is. I don't know everything but I know we can trust him. I think that's him now." They saw another car approaching and it was Carter.

As he got out of his car he said, "I'm sorry for the deception earlier gentlemen but I had to get Huggy Bear someplace safe. I didn't know for sure who I could trust. Chief, you I knew I could trust. I was pretty sure I could trust Johnson and Reynolds and I was hoping they would tell Starsky and Hutch to hide Huggy."

"You faked the files didn't you?" Hutch asked looking at the man and remembering how much he wanted to hit him before.

"Yes, I had to. I had to come up with a way to get you and your partner to hide Huggy. I knew the evidence against him had to at least sound convincing."

"Well it worked. Huggy's safe for now. Chief, he won't let Seth get killed. He wants to make the trade. Starsky and I have another idea, though, that might just save everyone."

"What's that?" The Chief asked looking around making sure no one else was close by.

"What we think is that someone on the streets wants to get some information to Huggy about a dirty cop. With Huggy out of the picture whoever that is won't come forward. Is that what you're thinking Carter?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking. Someone, a dirty cop, wants Huggy dead to keep him from getting that information. I also think there's more than one person involved."

Chief Sterling asked, "Any idea on how many or who?"

"The only thing I know is that it's someone in the department." He took out another file on Huggy and showed it to them. "This is how I know. It was left on my desk. I know enough about files and photographs to know it's a fake. Whoever it is wanted me to believe this and have Huggy picked up and most likely to kill him while he was in custody as a message."

Hutch looked at the file and asked, "When did you get this?"

"The day before yesterday. I knew I had to act fast so I added more fake pictures and other documents. It had to look convincing enough for you to take it seriously."

"What are we going to do tomorrow at noon? Hutch, you said you had an idea." Reynolds asked as he looked at the file.

"I'm going to make an appearance at The Pits tonight after this little meeting."

"Like hell you are," came the rather loud reply from Chief Sterling.

"We knew you'd like it."

"I can't imagine Starsky being all for this plan of yours either. You and Starsky do know that you are retired, don't you? We had a party and everything." Sterling said lowering his voice.

"Yeah, well he wasn't real thrilled about it but I promised to take Johnson and Reynolds with me." He looked at Johnson and said, "So if anything happens to me you'll have to answer to Starsky." He chuckled.

"Wouldn't dream of letting anything happen to that pretty blonde hair of yours." Johnson said smiling back.

Carter asked, "If nothing happens tonight at The Pits what do we do tomorrow?"

"Set up the trade, Chief." Hutch replied, rubbing his head.

"We can't do that, Hutch. You know that."

"I know. I didn't say we would actually go through with it. Set it up, but have it take place in a couple of days. Say we won't be checking in until then or something. Stall, we need time."

They stayed talking for a while setting up final plans. They knew the trade could not take place. They all knew Seth would be killed anyway and Huggy would be too. Austin would be told in the morning that the plan was for the trade to be set up but not actually take place. As a Detective, Austin knew the trade would never happen even if it meant losing Seth. Seth knew this too.

Chapter 6

Hutch called Debbie and Jeanne and told them to go someplace safe. He told them to go to a hotel and to call Chief Sterling's cell phone and let him know where they were. He told her not to tell him where they were going to be. It would be safer if he didn't know. He let her know the boys, Starsky, and Huggy were all fine so far. He didn't mention anything about Seth, Thompson or his plan on going to The Pits tonight.

Debbie wasn't thrilled about this latest adventure of theirs but she knew they needed to keep Huggy safe. She understood how important this was to Hutch. She thought a lot of Huggy too and would do anything to help. Right now, she knew the best thing that they could do was to stay safe so their husbands didn't have to worry about them too. She knew they had their hands full worrying about everything else that was going on. She told him she loved him and not to worry she would get Jeanne and they would stay out of sight until he called them. Hutch felt really lucky to have a wife that understood him and what was important to him. He said he loved her too.

Hutch walked into The Pits after Johnson and Reynolds were in a position to watch everything. The employees all knew the three of them well and none of them questioned Johnson staying in the kitchen where he could watch everything. One waitress, Shelly, asked Hutch where Huggy was. She said she heard that the police were looking for him. Hutch asked who had told her that and she said a cop had come by a couple of days ago looking for him. Hutch asked her if she knew the name of that cop and she said she hadn't seen him in there before. She gave Hutch a description of him, but it sounded like half the guys on the force.

Hutch sat at the bar while nursing a beer looking around to see who came and went. He saw a kid who looked like he was about sixteen, and scared to death walk in. Shelly started to chase him out because he was underage when Hutch shook his head. The boy sat next to him and ordered a soda. Hutch nodded at Shelly to give it to him. The kid looked around and whispered, "You're Hutch, aren't you." Hutch nodded slightly. "You used to be cop and you're friends with Huggy?"

"Yes. I'm retired and Huggy is a great friend. Is there something I can help you with?"

The boy was looking around so much he almost fell off the stool, "If they find me, I'm dead. I know I can trust Huggy and I know he trusts you. Can you get me out of here without getting us both killed?"

Hutch nodded, told Shelly to put the drinks on his tab and asked, "What's your name?"

The boy shook his head, "Not here. Please, get me outta here."

"Follow me. We're going out the back door it'll be safer, okay?" The boy nodded and followed Hutch when he stood up.

"My name, my name is uh, Joey." He was shaking from fear. It took every bit of courage he could muster to finish, "It's Joey Eubanks and what I know could get us all killed."

They went outside and Hutch looked around and found a safe place they could talk. He saw Johnson and Reynolds follow him outside and motioned for them to keep their distance at least for now. "Joey, I know it's hard. I know you're scared but tell me what do you know?"

"I know who in the department is working for Big Mac Collins."

"The crime boss Collins?" Hutch whispered as he touched Joey's arm as a show of support. "You have to trust me, okay. There's a couple of detectives I need you to talk too. There watching us now." Joey started to run but Hutch caught him and said, "Trust me, Joey. It'll be okay. I trust them." Cautiously Joey looked around. His heart was pounding so fast and hard and he started breathing faster. Hutch repeated, "Trust me."

He asked, "Is it Johnson and Reynolds? Are they ones with you?" Hutch nodded. Joey nodded and said, "Okay." Hutch motioned for Reynolds and Johnson to come out of the shadows. They knew Joey was scared and they approached them slowly so they wouldn't scare him more.

Joey nodded, took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm himself down, "There's three men in the police department that work for Collins. I know there's a fourth person but I don't know who that is. I don't know if he's on the department or not. I finally got up the nerve to tell Huggy a couple of days ago but he hasn't been here. I heard that the police are looking for Huggy. I didn't see you or Starsky here either."

Hutch held him closer and said, "Joey, I'm here now, who is it? Tell us and I promise we'll get him."

"James Mitchell, his partner Steve Vaughn and another guy named Marcus Holmes. Do you remember last month when that undercover cop Phil Reyes was killed?" The three detectives nodded. They knew Phil; his killer was never caught. "I saw it. I saw the whole thing. I have it on tape. They didn't see me. I ran away and I've been hiding. I knew I could trust Huggy. Somehow they found out that someone knew who they were and they were going to tell Huggy. They were going to kill him. They were going to kill Huggy. I had to do something. They still don't know I'm the one who saw them." He paused and took a deep breath. "It was Mitchell who put the fake file on Carter's desk. I was going to talk to Carter when I knew they were going after Huggy. I didn't know where else to go. Mitchell wanted Huggy arrested then they could kill him while he was in jail. I heard him say that."

"We need to tell the Chief." Johnson said looking around to make sure they were still alone.

"Joey, do you know where they have taken Seth Green?" Hutch asked hopefully.

"Who's Seth?"

"That answers that question. He's a detective and a good friend."

"Why would they take another cop?"

Hutch explained to Joey about the trade that was supposed to take place tomorrow at noon. Joey hung his head and said, "It's my fault. It's all my fault."

Hutch put his arm around Joey and reassured him that none of this was his fault. They talked a while and decided that the best plan was to let these creeps think the trade was still going to take place. Joey would go home with Johnson for the night to keep him safe. Johnson knew the risks but it was the best way to keep Joey safe. Mitchell and the others still didn't know who the informer was or that they now knew their names. Joey knew he couldn't call his parents just yet. He knew they were worried about him more everyday he was gone but they were safer this way. None of them mentioned anything about Thompson. Joey was scared enough already and that would just push him over the edge. Joey had told them that he had a video tape of Phil's murder. Johnson left with Joey and Reynolds to pick up the video Joey had hidden. Hutch got in the rental car and said he would call them in the morning.

Hutch went to a store and picked up more supplies after leaving the meeting. As he left the store, he turned down Monroe Street when a car cut him off and slammed on their brakes forcing Hutch to swerve into a pole. Hutch started to draw his gun when a masked man pointed a gun at his head and said, "Don't do it, Hutchinson." Hutch put his hands in the air. The man reached inside the car and pulled Hutch's gun out of its holster. Hutch took a deep breath and thought 'here we go again.' "Get out of the car nice and easy now." Hutch nodded and got out and was hit on the back of the head knocking him out.

When he woke up, Hutch was lying on a bed tied down. He struggled with the ropes trying to free himself. He was blindfolded but could hear someone else in the room. "Who's there?" He called out.

"Hutch, is that you?" Came a familiar voice.

"Yeah, Seth it's me. Are you okay?"

"I've been beat up and have a blindfold on but yeah, I'm okay," His voice started to crack as he asked, "They killed Thompson didn't they?"

"I don't know. Sterling can't find him. Everyone's looking though. Don't give up just yet."

"How'd they get you?"

"Someone forced me off the road and into a pole."

"Are you okay?"

"Outside of this killer headache, I'm fine." Hutch said still struggling with the ropes.

They could hear the door open and a voice said, "You two having a nice reunion?"

"Yes, lovely. Thank you for arranging it," was the sarcastic reply from Hutch. He received a slap across the face for his efforts.

"Well now we have two hostages to exchange for Huggy." Seth and Hutch heard the voice say.

"That won't happen. There won't be any trade, right Hutch?" He was hoping they were not going to try to trade him for Huggy. He knew he would be killed either way. He was really hoping they had another plan altogether.

Hutch understood that Seth didn't know the plan was to set up the trade but not actually go through with it. He had no way of letting him know anything right now. He was hoping he'd get a chance later to fill him on everything they knew so far.

The man said, "Answer him, Hutch. What was decided at that little meeting you went to? You were seen with Chief Sterling and the others at the theatre. You were lost for a little while after that but they found you again."

"Nothing was decided."

The man hit Hutch again and asked, "What's the plan? Where is Huggy? If you tell me where he is I'll let both of you go right now."

Hutch realized that they knew about the meeting behind the old theatre, but he didn't say anything about The Pits. They didn't know about Joey. They didn't know Sterling already knew all the information Joey was going to tell Huggy. Joey's identity was safe and he was glad for that. Hutch had been hit several times and had a bloody lip, what was going to be a black eye by tomorrow and other assorted bruises. He was sore and aching all over but he would not give up Huggy.

Seth could hear Hutch being hit and yelled at the man to stop. He yelled until he was horse.

"Who's Huggy?" He was hit again. "Really can't you bad guys ever fight fair? Beating up someone who's tied up takes real guts." He flinched waiting for the next hit. The man decided no matter what he did to Hutch he would not tell them where Huggy was. Hutch was about to pass out when the man said, "Okay, mister tough guy, let's try something else." The man untied Hutch and threw him into a chair and tied him back up. Hutch felt the man tugging at the blindfold then he saw bright lights. The lights were so bright he had to close his eyes for a minute to let them adjust.

When Hutch opened his eyes again he was sitting about five feet away from Seth who was tied and blindfolded sitting slumped over in a chair. Hutch could see several bruises already forming on Seth's face. He noticed the bloody lip he had and he looked physically exhausted. He suspected that Seth had been hit in the chest too. "What have you done to him? Seth, are you alright?" Hutch looked at the man, but he was wearing a mask and didn't recognize his voice. Hutch had no idea who this man was. He didn't know if it was one of the three cops Joey told them about or the fourth man.

"He's fine for now. Tell me what I want to know or your friend here's going to be next. Maybe I won't be so nice to him. Now, I'll ask you one more time; where is your partner hiding Huggy?"

"Don't tell him, Hutch. No matter what he does to me, don't tell him."

Hutch's heart ached for Seth. He wanted to yell and scream and he wanted to jump up and get this man. Hutch said, "Take his blindfold off." Hutch's voice became very calm and pleading.

"What?"

"I said take his off his blindfold." He managed to keep his voice calm and relaxed. Hutch wanted Seth to see him. He wanted Seth to know he was there for him and he wanted him to see a friendly face. He also knew that he had been sitting tied up in that chair blindfolded for a long time.

The man took the blindfold off of Seth. Like Hutch, Seth had to close his eyes so they could adjust to the light. He blinked several times and finally was able to open them.

Seth looked at Hutch and gave him a small smile. He was glad to see somebody. Hutch nodded slightly at him to let him know that whatever happened now they were together.

"Okay, now where is Huggy?"

Seth started to say something but the look on Hutch's face let him know not to say anything. "I don't know." The man hit Seth this time. He knew no matter what he did to him, Hutch wouldn't give up Huggy, but seeing his friend get beat up was something else entirely. Seth winced from the pain of yet another hit to his abdomen. He doubled over in the chair. Hutch quickly said, "I don't know. Starsky moved him after I left. I'm supposed to call him to find out where they are."

"You're not lying to me are you?" The man asked, knowing the answer. It sounded logical to him.

"It's the truth. Until I call Starsky, I won't know where he took Huggy."

Chapter 7

Starsky had been restless since Hutch left. He hated the plan and he hated Hutch going without him. He tried to hide his worries from Huggy and the boys but they knew. None of them could sleep until Hutch came back. At 0100 Starsky was really worried and he told Huggy and the boys to pack up that they needed to move.

Davey put his head down shaking it slowly, "He's not coming back is he, Uncle Dave?"

"I'm betting he's okay and just lost track of time. Before he left, he told me to pack up and move if he wasn't back by 0100." He tried to sound convincing but he knew. Something inside him told him Hutch was in trouble. That was part of the special bond they shared. They both 'just knew' when the other was hurting or in trouble and this time was no different. He had to fight that feeling and concentrate on keeping Huggy and the boys safe.

They all started rolling up the sleeping bags, putting the food in the cooler, and Huggy grabbed the file they got from Carter. Kenny said, "We need to make it look like we were never here, right Dad?"

Starsky nodded as he picked up some trash and put it in a small plastic bag. They boys looked around for more evidence of their presence and not finding anything they got in Davey's car. Huggy grabbed Starsky's arm before he opened the door and whispered so the boys couldn't hear him, "Starsk, no matter what happens to me don't let anything happen to Hutchie." Starsky could see the fear and concern in Huggy eyes.

"I don't know what happened, Hug, but he was supposed to be back or call by one. I got to get you someplace safe. Hutch said to keep you safe." Huggy started to say something else but Starsky cut him off saying, "Hug, you know how these things go. Even if we give you to them…" He stopped in mid-sentence. He didn't want to think of what would happen to Hutch or Seth. He didn't tell Huggy that no one knew where Thompson was. Huggy shook his head and opened the door to the shed. He closed the door when the car cleared it and got in the passenger side of the car.

Starsky didn't know where to go he just headed out of town. About 0130 his phone rang. It was his regular cell phone not the prepaid one. He hesitated before answering it. He finally decided to take a chance and answered it, "Hello."

"Starsk," Hutch said.

"It's me. You okay, pal?" Starsky knew by the sound of his voice Hutch wasn't. His instincts were right. He knew that Hutch was giving him a message by calling his regular phone. He hoped it wouldn't be traced.

"I'm fine. Where did you move Huggy?"

"Oh, you know, no place special."

"Starsk, it's late and we're tired where are you?" He sounded irritated.

"What's your Badge number?" Hutch was supposed to tell him his number; he was hoping he'd say eighty-two.

The man had heard that Starsky and Hutch often talked in code and knew this was one of them. He had his gun pointed at Seth and said, "You'd better tell him your badge number or your friend gets it now. I know it's twelve."

Hutch took a deep breath and said, "Twelve."

Starsky knew Hutch was in trouble now and had to come up with a place. Since he was already moving Huggy and the boys he said, "We moved to the old zoo. We're in bear caves. When ya comin'?"

Hutch knew Starsky got the message that he wasn't safe. He never liked the bear caves since the whole incident with Simon Marcus. "It'll take us about an hour." He hoped by saying 'us' Starsky would pick up that he was with Seth now.

"Okay. I'll see ya then, buddy."

The man took the phone away from him and said, "You better hope he's telling the truth."

Starsky hung up and decided he'd better tell the boys and Huggy everything. They knew Hutch was going to meet with Sterling about trading Seth for Huggy but that was all they knew. He had a feeling if he pulled over Huggy would jump out and take off so he kept driving. He said, "Okay, you deserve to know what's going on."

Kenny and Davey looked at each other. They already knew their dads were hiding something and so did Huggy.

Huggy said, "Starsk, what did Hutch get into?"

"Hutch went to meet with Chief Sterling but after that he was going to The Pits to see if whoever wanted to get information to you would see him and talk to him."

"Dad never made the meeting, did he?"

"I don't know, Davey. I'm going to call Reynolds in a minute. When Hutch called he gave me a coded message that there was trouble. Now, I don't know yet what kind but I know he's in trouble. He also said it would take us an hour to get to the zoo. I think he may be with Seth." He paused to give them all time to let what he said sink in.

"There's more isn't there, Dad?"

"There's always more, my young friends." Huggy said looking at Starsky waiting for the other bomb shell to drop.

"You talked to Dad so he can't be in too bad a shape, right?"

"Right, he's okay for now."

"So, what's the rest of it, Dad?"

Starsky sighed and told them about Thompson being missing. He told them Seth saw him get shot and now no one can find him. Everyone was silent as they thought about Thompson and what it would do to Seth if he had been killed.

Reynolds was just getting to sleep when his phone rang at about 0145. He rolled over and answered it, "Hello."

"Reynolds, this is Starsky. Hutch called he's in trouble. Did he make the meeting?"

"Yeah, yeah, he went to The Pits after we met with Chief Sterling. I can't tell you anything more over the phone but it was about midnight the last I saw him."

"Look, keep the trade arranged for tomorrow. Hutch said something and I think he may be with Seth."

"I'll let the Chief know. Keep Huggy safe. I can't tell you what but things happened tonight."

"That's the plan. Hey, any more news on Thompson?"

"No. We don't get it. We can't find him anywhere. We were told he was dead and where he was but we can't find any sign of him. Hutch gave me your number I'll call you after I talk to the chief."

Starsky hung up and said, "Okay, the zoo was loads of fun where should we go now?"

"What did he say, Starsk?" Huggy said in all seriousness.

"Reynolds said he couldn't tell me why but I had to keep you safe.

That was real important. He couldn't tell me what but something happened tonight."

"What about the trade tomorrow? I heard you tell him to keep it." Huggy asked.

"We were going to set up a trade, but you're not going to be there."

"I have to be, especially now that they have Hutch. Don't you get it, Starsk? I can't do this, don't ask me too."

Davey raised his voice and said, "My Dad would die for you, Uncle Huggy. He loves you that much. They have a plan; you can't go in and blow it. He's risking everything for you." Kenny squeezed Davey's shoulder as way of reassuring him that things would work out. Davey put his head down and calmly said, "Please, Uncle Huggy, please do what Uncle Dave says. If you go along with the plan it will work out. It always does."

"What is the plan, Starsk?

"Hug, right now I honestly don't know. With Hutch missing I just don't know. Reynolds said things happened tonight but he can't say what over the phone."

"Dad, let's go to Austin's tonight. Before you say no, think about it. It's about the last place anyone will expect us to go. We can hide the car in the garage."

Starsky looked at Huggy, shrugged his shoulders and said, "It can't be any more dangerous than any place else right now. This way we can work out a plan. We'll go there but only if you promise you won't try anything stupid, Hug. I mean it, you have to stay with us."

"Yeah, I get it. Everyone loves the Bear. I must be more important than I thought I was."

"You got that right." Starsky said as he turned the car around and headed towards Austin's.

"We can't call him to let him know we're coming can we, Uncle Dave?"

"No. It'll be a surprise."

As they got closer to the house that Austin shared with his brother, Davey said, "Uncle Dave, let me out a block away. I can open the garage door and make sure it's safe."

"I'll go with you, Hutch."

"Even better, Starsk."

Starsky smiled listening to the boys call themselves Starsky and Hutch. They were so much like him and Hutch. He couldn't help but feel happy they were such good friends as well as cousins. He was so deep in his own thoughts that he didn't answer until Kenny said, "Dad, will ya drop us off?"

"Uh? Oh yeah. I'll drop you off a block away. Starsky pulled over and said, "Okay, you got five minutes. If I don't see the garage door open I'll know something's wrong and I'll meet you back here, got it?"

"We got it." They boys replied at the same time.

As Davey got out of the car, he said, "I'm sorry I yelled at you, Uncle Hug."

Smiling, Huggy said, "I guess I deserved it. Just so you know I love your Dad too."

Chapter 8

Davey and Kenny ran the block to Austin's house. They looked through the living room window and saw all the lights were off except one in the bedroom. They knew Austin would be worried about Seth and he was probably still awake. They went to the side of the house and Davey lightly tapped on the window.

Austin was lying in the bed with the lights on. He was thinking about Seth and Thompson. He was worried about his brother and couldn't sleep. Martin stayed the night with him and was sleeping in the spare room just to be there for moral support. They were best friends and partners. Martin was worried about Seth and Thompson too. Austin heard a tap on the window and looked up. He jumped up when he saw Davey and Kenny. He yelled for Martin at the same time he opened the window. Davey said, "Open the garage door, Uncle Dave needs to hide the car."

Austin got up quickly and opened the garage door for Starsky as Martin opened the front door for the boys. He looked at the boys and hugged them, "We've been so worried about you guys are you alright?"

"We're fine, but dad's missing… again." Davey said sadly.

Starsky saw the garage door open and drove inside. The door was quickly closed by Austin who said, "Man, you're a sight for sore eyes."

Starsky gave Austin a quick hug and Austin asked, "Are you guys okay?"

Huggy said, "We're fine my man. Just fine." He didn't sound too convincing.

They all went into the living room and the boys sat on the couch. Starsky sat on the arm of the end of the couch next to Kenny, Huggy sat on the love seat. Martin said, "I'll assume all of you are hungry."

Starsky said, "You know me, I could always eat." The boys both nodded. Martin went into the kitchen to fix them something.

Davey leaned towards Kenny, sniffed him and said, "I think you need a shower more than anything, Starsk."

Kenny gave him a disapproving look and said, "Well you don't smell like a bouquet of flowers either, Hutch."

Laughing, Starsky said, "I guess we could all use a shower."

Austin got up and said, "Davey, you're first come; on." Davey followed Austin into his room where he was given a shirt to sleep in, a towel and wash cloth. Austin said, "I'll wash all of your clothes."

"Thanks, Austin."

As Austin started to leave, Davey said, "We'll find them. Dad and Seth, we'll find them."

"I know we will." Austin took some shirts back to the others and told them to take off their shirts and pants so he could wash them.

Chief Sterling arrived just as Starsky was getting out of the shower. Starsky sent the boys to Austin's room to get some sleep. They protested but were really tired. Their idea was to stay awake and listen in. As they lay in the bed, Davey said, "Hey, Starsk?"

"Yeah, Hutch?"

"Do you really think Dad, Seth and Thompson will be okay?"

"I think Uncle Ken and Seth will be, but I worry about Thompson. I sure hope all of them are okay."

"Me too. I wonder if our careers are going to be like this."

"I don't know, but you and I have an advantage."

"Oh yeah. What's that?"

"Well you can kick ass, we both can get out of handcuffs and ropes and with the illusions I can do we have a definite advantage."

"That's true. I'm glad we got to be in on this one. I mean they let us hide Huggy first. I don't know about you, but that makes me feel special, ya know?"

"Yeah it does, Hutch. I'm glad they did too. I'd hate to see anything happen to Uncle Huggy." They fell asleep within a few minutes. They had a long day and were very tired.

Chief Sterling was glad to know that Starsky and the others were safe. He was pretty worried about Hutch, Seth and Thompson. He filled Starsky and Huggy in on Joey and everything they knew.

"So let me see if I got all this straight. Some kid named Joey takes a video of three cops killing another cop. Mitchell, one of the bad guys, finds out about the video. Now he doesn't know who took the video but knows that it will be given to me to turn over to you." Huggy said rubbing his head. This was getting too complicated to think about at three in the morning.

"So, they decided to give Carter that fake information to have Huggy here picked up. That way they could kill him while he was in custody and he'd never get the video." Starsky said he was getting a headache too.

Austin said, "Carter knew that if there was enough proof and the charges were bad enough, you and Hutch would hide Huggy to keep him safe. So he doctored the file even more and added a bunch of stuff dating way back in your careers. You did just what he wanted; you hid Huggy, giving us time to figure out what was going on."

"So they kidnapped Seth to lure Huggy out of hiding. Mitchell wants to kill Huggy as a message." Martin said as he took a sip of his beer.

"If we follow this logic and they still don't know that we know any of this; once they see you Huggy…" Starsky said, yawning.

"Yeah, I'm a dead man."

Austin got up and went into the laundry room to put the clothes in the dryer. He had given Starsky and Huggy sweat pants to wear while their clothes were being washed.

Chief Sterling said, "Right, so you have to stay out of sight. We already know all the information we need."

"Except where they are holding Hutch and Seth and what happened to Thompson. Chief, you gotta let me trade places."

"No." was the reply Huggy received from the other four.

Austin came back in time to hear what Huggy just said, "As much as I love my brother and want him back, I know trading you won't save him or Hutch. It will only get you killed. With you alive we have a bargaining tool. They still think you're the key to whole thing. They think if they kill you we'll never find out who they are."

"Austin's right Hug. Getting yourself killed won't help them." Martin said.

"Okay, but are we going to do then? How do we get Hutch and Seth back? How do we find Thompson?" Huggy asked still determined not to let Seth or Hutch die for him.

"Me. Use me instead." Starsky said.

"What?" came the reply from Chief Sterling.

"I'll be there at the trade. Look, they don't know that we know anything, right? "

Chief Sterling shook his head disapproving, "We can't do that either. We don't know what they know now. I'm sure they know that we don't think this is about somebody framing Huggy as a crime boss anymore."

It was finally decided that when they received a call in the morning they would arrange for a trade. Huggy would not be there. Martin would stay with Huggy and the boys and Starsky would go. They would tell Mitchell that Huggy snuck out and no one knew where he was.

When Hutch got off the phone with Starsky the man made a call telling his accomplices to go to the old zoo and they would find Huggy there. The man left Seth and Hutch alone in the room.

Hutch saw Seth slumped over in the chair and asked, "Hey, you still with me?"

Seth heard Hutch woke up and said, "Yeah, I'm still here, Hutch. How we gonna get out of this one?"

"I don't think we have very long before he comes back. Get out of the ropes and we'll jump him."

Seth laughed, "Have you seen yourself? Have you seen me? Do I look like I could jump anyone? You sure as hell don't."

"Don't give up on me Seth. Don't surrender to the anger and fear. We can do it together."

Seth was already out of the ropes and untied Hutch who was still struggling with his ropes, "I'd never give up, Hutch."

Hutch smiled at him. He was proud of Seth he reminded him of himself when he first joined the department. He had come a long way in a short period of time. He looked at the window and said, "I have another idea. Let's go out of the window. Maybe we can get to the car."

Seth opened the window and jumped out then he helped Hutch. They quietly and quickly went around to the front where the car was. They were lucky and didn't see any one. Hutch got in the driver's and started to drive off slowly at first. When he was down the dirt road he took off full speed and he didn't stop until he was almost back in town. By the time they escaped and drove to town it was 0300 when Hutch called Starsky.

Starsky had just gone to sleep on Austin's couch when his prepaid phone rang. "Hello." He answered wearily.

"Starsk, I'm the Thee and Seth is with me where are you now?"

Starsky wasn't sure it was safe to tell him so he asked him, "What's your badge number."

"Mine is twelve and yours is eight-two. It's okay, Starsk, we escaped."

"I'm at Austin's. How soon can you get here?"

"About twenty minutes. Any word on Thompson yet?"

"No."

They hung up and Starsky woke Austin up who was sleeping in the lounge chair. He told him Hutch just called and he was with Seth. Starsky thought about whether or not he should wake the boys but decided to let them sleep.

About twenty minutes later Hutch pulled into the garage next to Starsky's car. Austin and Starsky took one look at Seth and Hutch and saw all the bruises. Seth was pretty weak and tired and could barely stand up. Austin was quickly at his side and helped him into the house. Starsky went to Hutch's side and helped him out of the car.

Martin had gone into the kitchen to get them something to drink and eat. Seth asked about Thompson and sadly Austin had to tell him there was no word. Austin put a cold cloth on Seth's eye and wiped the dried blood off his brother's face. Seth winced from the pain but let him continue.

As Starsky wiped the blood from Hutch's lip he said, "Are you okay, buddy?"

"Yeah, but they want Huggy bad. Hey where is Huggy?"

Huggy heard people talking and went in the living room to see who it was and said, "Right here, my man." He looked at Hutch then he turned to look at Seth seeing all the bruises and dried blood he said, "This is my…"

Hutch cut him off, "Don't say it, Hug. Don't even think it."

Seth pushed Austin's hand away and said, "Huggy, this isn't your fault." He nodded for Austin to continue.

Huggy sighed, "I'm glad you two are back."

Starsky finished wiping Hutch's face and asked, "Hutch who was it? Who had you?"

Hutch shook his head and said, "We never saw him. He was wearing a mask and I didn't recognize his voice."

Seth nodded and said, "I heard him make a phone call but never heard any names."

Starsky got up to rinse the cloth out and said, "We need Sterling and the rest of the guys here including Joey."

Martin reached in his pocket and took out his cell phone, "I'll start with Sterling."

Starsky took out his phone, "I'll call Johnson."

Hutch told them he would call Reynolds. Austin finished with Seth and when he returned from putting the cloth in the dirty clothes, he noticed Seth was already asleep.

Hutch saw him too and said, "He was beaten up pretty badly. He needs rest now."

Austin woke his brother up enough to take him into the spare room where Huggy had been. He put a clean shirt on him and helped him into the bed. Seth started shivering so Austin covered him up and quietly said, "I'm so glad you're back, bro. You'll be just fine now I'm here to take care of you. Get some sleep you're safe now." He turned the light off and closed the door.

Chief Sterling and the others showed up as soon as they heard Hutch and Seth were back. Johnson wanted to keep Joey safe so he brought him with him to Austin's.

They knew why someone wanted Huggy dead now and they knew who. It wouldn't be hard to pick up the three officers involved but they didn't know the identity of the fourth man and they still had no word on Thompson. They talked a little while on how they should proceed. Hutch and Seth never saw who had them, no one knew about Joey except for them so nothing really had changed. The four men would still be after Huggy. If the three cops were picked up the fourth man would still be out on the streets. Chief Sterling said everyone was safe now except Thompson and they all needed to get some sleep for a few hours so they could start fresh. With a little rest they may be able to come up with some ideas. They all agreed and decided it would be safe for now if they all stayed together. Huggy promised that he would not try anything stupid like leaving.

Chapter 9

It was eleven when Davey woke up. He rubbed his eyes and walked into the living room and saw his dad sleeping on the couch. He went to his side and gently shook him, "Dad?"

"Davey." Hutch sat up and told him all about how he had been taken and how he got away with Seth. Davey noticed that his face looked like it had been used as a punching bag again and asked if he was okay. Hutch told his son that he was a little sore but that he was okay now. Davey asked how Seth was. Hutch told him Seth was hurt too but he'd be okay.

Starsky heard the two of them talking and said, "Good mornin'."

Davey looked around and noticed that there were a lot of people sleeping on the floor and Chief Sterling was even there sleeping in a chair. "Is it over? Did you catch the bad guys?"

Everyone else started to wake up when they heard the voices. "I'm afraid not, son. Morning, buddy." Hutch said as he stood up and stretched.

Starsky got up and made his way over to Hutch to look at his injuries again. "I'm fine, Starsk."

Seth walked out of the bedroom and he looked pretty bad. He had bruises all over his face and he was doubled over as he tried to walk to the living room to join the others. Austin jumped up and helped him to a chair, "You okay, Seth?"

"I'm hurting but I think I'll be okay." He sat down very slowly and cringed from the pain moving caused.

Martin and Hutch went into the kitchen to make some coffee for everybody. Martin told Davey that his clothes were clean now as he tossed him his jeans and shirt. Davey thanked him and went into the bathroom to change. Hutch changed into his own clothes too. Starsky, Huggy and Kenny all changed back into their own clothes.

Davey and Kenny saw Joey sitting by himself in a chair in the corner. They walked over to him and Davey held his hand out to shake Joey's and said, "Hi, I'm Davey Hutchinson."

Kenny followed and said, "And I'm Kenny, but you can call us Starsky and Hutch."

Joey looked shy and was still scared of strangers but knew he could trust Davey and Kenny. Johnson told him that Starsky and Hutch's boys would be there. He held out his hand and shook their hands and said, "I'm Joey."

The tape that Joey made showed Mitchell, Vaughn and Holmes being ordered by Big Mac Collins to kill Phil Reyes. It showed Reyes being beaten to death with a baseball bat. There was a fourth person there but his back was turned so there was no way of telling who it was.

They could arrest the three cops easily enough but they knew none of them would ever give up the fourth man. With the tape in their possession Joey's identity was safe. The tape would be enough evidence and Joey would not have to testify in court. No one ever had to know it was him who gave them the tape. Everyone in the room agreed on that including Davey and Kenny. He could go home to his parents and would be reported as a run a way.

Chief Sterling's phone rang and a man on the other end told him that Hutch and Seth got away but said, "You never found Thompson did you?"

Chief Sterling let out a sigh as he asked, "What do you know about Thompson." All the others in the room became very quiet at the mention of Thompson's name.

"I know you want him and I have him."

"I don't know where Huggy is. Starsky has him hidden. Let me talk to Thompson. I want to know he's still alive and you really have him."

"No. You'll have to take my word for it."

"Like I said, I don't know where Huggy is so if you're hoping for a trade, forget it."

"I will call back in an hour and if you want to see Thompson alive again, you'd better hope Starsky turns up with Huggy." The man hung up before the chief could say anything else.

Seth just put his head down, sighed and rubbed his hands. He doubted that this man had Thompson alive or he would have let him talk to the Chief. Austin walked over to his brother and put his arm around him. Seth said, "We gotta find him, Austin, dead or alive. I got to know what happened."

"We'll find him, I promise." Austin said but he wasn't sure anymore if Thompson would be found alive. He wanted to keep his hopes up for his brother.

Chief Sterling said, "We'll find him, Seth. We'll find him."

Huggy had gone into the kitchen and sat down with a cup of coffee in his hand. He stared at the kitchen door. It would be so easy to leave and turn himself over to the men who wanted him so badly. He wanted to leave, he wanted to run away from all this. He stood up and put his hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it when a voice said, "That won't solve anything."

Huggy turned around to see Hutch standing there. Huggy put his head down and slowly walked back to the table and sat down. "Hutch when he took you I wanted to make the trade. I wanted to save you and Seth."

"It wouldn't have saved us, Hug. That man would have killed us. Seth and I both knew that."

"I thought we'd lost you for sure this time, Hutch." He took a sip of his coffee. "Thompson, what about him? Who do you think has him?"

"I don't know, Hug. I wish I did. I wish I knew who had us and I wish I knew who that fourth person is." He took a sip of his hot coffee. "Come on, Hug, we'll find out what happened to Thompson and we'll catch Collins and the others." He stood up and started to walk back into the living room to join the others. He looked back at Huggy who was still just staring into his coffee. "Hug." There was no answer. Hutch put his hand on Huggy's shoulder and said, "Hey, Hug, you've been there for us and the boys several times over the years, let us be here for you now. We love ya, Huggy. You got to know that." Huggy nodded, he did know that and he loved his family too. He followed Hutch into the living room.

Starsky and Hutch decided not to call Jeanne or Debbie for a while. They were safe at a hotel and they wanted to make sure they stayed that way. They knew their wives would be worried but didn't want to risk contacting them. Jeanne and Debbie know that for the most part no news is good news.

Chapter 10

Thompson had been shot and hit the ground and lie motionless on the ground. He felt helpless as he watched his partner being forced into a car. He passed out as he saw Seth struggling with the man and being hit on the head.

Thompson didn't know how much time had passed when he finally woke up. His insides were on fire and he felt sick to the stomach. The room was spinning so he closed his eyes quickly. A minute later he opened them slowly. He moaned from the pain he was in and yelled, "Help me please, somebody help me." At least he thought he was yelling. He was so weak his voice hardly carried across the room. No one answered him. He realized that he was lying on the ground but he didn't know where he was or how he got there. What he did know was that he had a bullet wound in his right lower abdomen and it hurt like nothing he'd ever felt before. He had been shot and knew it was infected. He tried to stand up and after several attempts he made it. He saw he was in an old barn and his car was parked in it too. He opened the car door and got behind the driver's side. He said, "How'd I get here, what happened? Come on James, think." He rested his head on the steering wheel a minute then all his memories came back to him. "Seth," he yelled out loud.

He knew he had to get help before he passed out again. He got out of the car and opened the barn door a crack to see if anyone was nearby. His memory was still cloudy but he knew he couldn't trust just anyone. He opened the door all the way and got back into the car. He knew he had to call the Chief before he lost consciousness again. He reached for his cell phone but it wasn't there and he figured he must have lost it someplace. He had been driving about an hour when he saw a truck stop and figured it would be safe enough to make a phone call. He put on a jacket he had in the back seat of his car. He didn't want anyone to see the wound which had started bleeding again from all the movement.

He leaned against the car before he could regain enough strength to go inside. He walked slowly and held his right side as he made into the store. He asked the cashier if he could use the phone saying it was an emergency. The cashier graciously handed Thompson his own cell phone and said he didn't look too well. He asked if there was anything he could do. Thompson said he just needed to use a phone and thanked him. Thompson knew he couldn't call Seth but he could call Chief Sterling.

Chief Sterling and the others were working on a plan to find out what happened to Thompson. They knew the same man that grabbed Seth and Hutch didn't have him or he would have let the Chief talk to him. The chief was hoping that he would be found alive and although he had not given up all hope, it had been two days now and he knew Thompson was injured. His hope was fading fast.

Seth wanted to go back to the restaurant and start from there. Johnson and Reynolds thought that was a good idea even though that area had been searched.

Chief Sterling's phone rang, "Thompson!" Everyone stopped talking and looked at him.

"Chief, he took Seth. Got to find him." He was hurting so much he had a hard time talking in complete sentences.

"Thompson, he's with us. Seth is safe. Where are you?"  
"At Miller's Truck. Hurt bad Chief. Shot in stomach. Help. Assistant DA Hill took Seth."

"Stay there. I'm sending Seth to get you now, understand? Stay put."

"Stay put, okay. Seth okay?" The longer he stood up the more difficult it became. He handed the phone back to the cashier and told him that he had help coming and would be fine. Thompson made it to the dining area and sat in a booth. He picked up the paper and realized that two days had gone by. He ordered some soup and water. He knew he needed to eat something but nothing greasy. He thought soup would be a safe choice.

Austin and Martin went with Seth to pick up Thompson. Reynolds and Johnson were sent to pick up Assistant District Attorney Hill. Chief Sterling had other detectives arrest the other three officers involved. Another team of detectives was sent to pick up the real West coast crime boss, Mac Collins. Sterling called Carter and arranged for a meeting in his office for later in the afternoon.

Seth opened the car door and jumped out before Austin had come to a full stop. He ran inside and saw Thompson with his head down on the table. He approached him slowly and said, "Hey, partner."

Thompson raised his head and said, "I thought they'd kill you."

Seth sat down next to him, put his arm around his partner and said, "I saw you get shot then we couldn't find you. Where are you hurt, buddy?"

Thompson showed him the bullet wound in his right side as Austin and Martin walked in. Austin said, "Seth, let's get him to the hospital."

"Can you walk to the car, partner?" Seth asked as he helped Thompson stand.

"I think I can make it; just help me. Don't let me fall."

"I'd never let you let fall. I'm here, I'm here."

Martin paid the waitress and the four left for the hospital. On the way, Thompson explained that he saw Hill put a mask on just before forcing Seth into the car. When he was shot he tried to follow them but lost them. He said he saw the old barn and decided to hide the car and rest a few minutes. He realized that he dropped his cell phone and couldn't call for help and passed out.

Chief Sterling took Joey home himself. He felt that he owed it to him. Joey showed a lot of courage by coming forward and showing the tape to the police, especially knowing some of them were involved. He knew he could trust Huggy because everyone on the streets knew that. Huggy would arrange for meetings in private with the police or he would pass information along to them but he never would betray the trust he had with the people on the streets or with the police. The Chief explained all that to Joey's parents. Joey told his parents that he was sorry he ran away but he had to. He had to protect them and his little brother. His parents were so happy to have him back they couldn't possibly be mad at him. They were also very proud of their son and understood why he did what he did.

Johnson and Reynolds arrested Hill and others had taken Mitchell, Vaughn, and Holmes into custody.

Collins was so big in the organization that he thought he would never be caught. He never thought anyone would have enough nerve to shut him down. He was wrong. It only took the courage of one sixteen-year-old boy to bring him down. Mac Collins will never learn the identity of the young man who brought him down, but he knew his days as leader of the organization were over.

Starsky and Hutch were still at Austin's house when all the arrests were made and Thompson was taken to the hospital. The Chief wanted to make sure Huggy was safe until everyone was arrested. Starsky, Hutch and the boys were going to make sure of that.

When Chief Sterling called Starsky and let him know all the arrests had been made and Joey was safe at home, he called Jeanne and asked her to meet them at the hospital. He told her that Thompson had been found and he had been shot.

Seth and the others had been made to wait outside while the doctors worked on Thompson in the Emergency Room. The doctor came out long enough to tell them that Thompson needed emergency surgery. He had a lot of internal damage and was in critical condition. Seth was pacing when Starsky and Hutch came in followed by Kenny and Davey.

"How is he?" Hutch asked as he stood in front him forcing him to stop and look at him.

"I don't know, Hutch. The doctor said it's pretty bad. He's in surgery now." Seth was still pretty weak from the beatings he had and almost fell.

Catching him Hutch said, "You'd better sit down before you end up as his roommate." Seth allowed Hutch to help him sit.

Jeanne and Debbie were walking fast as they came into the waiting room where the others were. Debbie saw the bruises on Hutch and said, "Not again. Honey, what happened?" She looked him all over to make sure she noticed everything.

He smiled and said, "Well, in my defense it wasn't exactly a fair fight. I was kinda tied up at the moment."

"He looks better than he did last night De… I mean, Mom. You should have seen him before Uncle Dave cleaned him up."

"I think I'm glad I didn't." Then she noticed Seth as he looked up. "Well you look worse than he does, Seth. Let me see." She looked at him and noticed all the bruises. He flinched when she accidently touched the one under his right eye. She apologized.

Jeanne looked at the both of them next. Then she looked at Starsky and asked, "So where are your injuries?"

Starsky pointed at himself and said, "Me?"

"Yes, you. If he got hurt I'm sure you did too."

"Oh, guilty by association."

"I'm waiting." Jeanne said rather impatiently.

"Actually, Dad managed to get out of this one unhurt."

Starsky nodded, "See, no bruises." He held his shirt up to prove it.

"Okay, I believe you. Put your shirt down."

The two women looked at Huggy next and asked if he was okay. He mumbled something that sounded like he said he was fine. This whole thing was a bit much for him to take in.

The doctor came in and said that Thompson was still in critical condition but they retrieved the bullet and he was on IV antibiotics, pain killers and he wanted to see his partner.

Seth was quiet as he walked into his partner's room and sat in the chair beside his bed. He said, "Hey, the doctor says you're going to be just fine in a couple of days."

"Liar, he said I'm critical. Look, partner, I may not make it this time…"

"Don't talk like that. I went through hell worrying about you."

"I'm sorry, buddy. You're right, I'll be fine. It's just I hurt so much right now."

Seth took his hand and said, "I'll be right here."

"Is Huggy safe?"

"Huggy's fine. Everyone is fine and we caught all the bad guys thanks to you seeing Hill." Thompson started to say something else but Seth told him to just rest. They could talk more later. Thompson went to sleep with Seth sitting in the chair next to him.

Carter met with Chief Sterling along with everyone involved in the case except for Seth who was still with Thompson at the hospital. Even Huggy was there. Carter apologized to Huggy for the deception and Huggy said he understood why it was necessary.

Carter was upset with himself for not realizing one of his assistants was on Collins' payroll. Chief Sterling pointed out that the man was good at what he did. The important thing was that Carter did the right thing.

Hutch remembered that he had been driving a rental car and he wrecked it. He asked the chief if they ever found it. Johnson said, "Yeah, about your rental?"

"What about my rental?"

"Tell him, Johnson." Reynolds said, sounding like he didn't want to be the one to tell him.

"You two, cut it out. Hutch has been through enough. Hutch your rental was totaled but the department's insurance paid the rental company so you're in the clear."

Hutch let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Chief."

Starsky took the water Hutch was drinking and said, "This was one weird case, wasn't it. I mean Huggy a crime boss?" He laughed.

Hutch laughed, "Yeah, the man's never even carried a gun." He started to take the water back from Starsky but knew it would be a lost cause so he got up and got another one.

"It could happen. I mean I know a lot of people you know." Huggy proceeded to spit out a list of names of the biggest members of the crime families in the Bay City area.

"Starsky, Hutch?" Chief Sterling said as he put a file in his drawer.

"Yes, Chief?" Came the simultaneous reply.

"Get him outta here before I think of some real charges against him."

Starsky and Hutch stood up and grabbed Huggy under the arms and said, "Come on God Father, let's go home."

As Hutch reached for the doorknob to leave the office, he turned around and said, "Thanks, guys." They nodded at him.

Later that night, Starsky and Hutch, their wives and boys and Huggy were at Starsky's eating pizza. Debbie had turned the radio on so it was playing softly in the background. They were seated around the table when Starsky noticed Huggy looked like he was still upset about the whole thing. "Hug, what's bothering ya?"

"It's just that everyone went to great lengths to protect me. Look at Hutch's face and did you see Seth, his whole body is beat up?"

Starsky put his piece of pizza down and said, "Hug, you're not blaming yourself for all this are you?"

"It's not really that. It's just oh heck I'll say it. I want to know why? Why would all of you go through such lengths to protect me? You all could have been killed, even Kenny and Davey. You stuck your necks out for me. It's not just you guys, but Seth, Reynolds, Johnson, even Chief Sterling. They could have lost their careers over me and Thompson was almost killed."

Starsky picked his pizza up and before taking a bite he said, "That's easy to answer, Hug. You want to know why we did it?" He looked around the table and said, "Everyone loves ya."

Hutch nodded and said, "It's as simple as that."

Davey said, "Yeah, we all love ya."

Debbie used the napkin to wipe her mouth and said, "What would the world be like without Huggy Bear?"

It gave Huggy a nice warm feeling inside. He always knew Starsky and Hutch had a soft spot for him, and they really did love him. Somehow everyone doing everything they could to protect him made him feel really special. "The world would be a dark boring place without the Bear." He said as he picked up a slice of pizza.

The room was quiet and Davey said, "Hey, Dad, what's the name of that song playing on the radio? I like it."

"That song. Oh it's called uh, what is Starsk?"

"Don't Give Up On Us." Starsky replied as he took another bite of his pizza.

"That's right. Some guy named Paul Glass sang it back in the seventies. I always liked it."

"No, no, no, Hutch. Paul Glaser, not Glass, was on that cop show you liked. David Soul sang Don't Give Up On Us."

"Oh yeah, that's right. It was David Soul."

"Cool." Davey said reaching for another piece of pizza.


End file.
